Note: This is a two-part series about Plan-B Theatre’s unconventional approach to holiday entertainment in two world premiere productions. In the critically acclaimed box office success of the 2003 movie ‘Bad Santa,’ there were 300 profanities uttered, Santa is a small-time criminal and alcoholic, and the kid, as the late film critic Roger Ebert recalled, … Read more
If anyone needed to get in the mood for Plan-B Theatre’s exquisitely creepy rendition of three Grimm Brothers tales prior to the live broadcast on KUER-FM’s RadioWest show, the news lead-in at the top of the hour did the trick. In less than four minutes, audience members in the downtown Jeanne Wagner Theatre heard news … Read more
“If the Brothers Grimm were not trying to tell charming bedtime stories, what were they trying to do? Why are the original versions of their stories so often violent and disturbing? The first answer to these questions is that the Brothers Grimm were simply being true to the stories as they existed in the early … Read more
NOTE: This is the first installment in a two-part series about Plan-B Theatre’s 24th season and a preview of Matthew Ivan Bennett’s ‘Radio Hour Episode Nine: Grimm.’ In certainly its most ambitious season during its 24-year history, Plan-B Theatre has programmed seven new plays by Utah playwrights that explore a vast territory of family values. … Read more
For six enterprising small performing arts companies, the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City is more than a residence for their creative work. It is the home for experimentation in humanity. It is the place for creating and performing new works of art. As Daniel Siepmann wrote recently at NewMusicBox, “Newness … Read more
Salt Lake Acting Company’s Saturday’s Voyeur might be considered the “airing of the grievances” by the Gentile (non-member) citizens of the Beehive State. Set in the church office building (COB) in downtown SLC, this year’s installment of Saturday’s Voyeur, running through August 31, tackles issues familiar to those in the city of salt. LGBT rights … Read more
Broadway blockbuster “Wicked” returns to Salt Lake City for an extended third run through August 24 at Capitol Theatre. The musical is the adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked—The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” which takes the well-known and well-loved story of “The Wizard of Oz” and turns it … Read more
The stories of Ana Popovic and Cee Cee James are persuasive cases about music’s transcendental capacity as a universal language of communication. With careers gaining significant momentum recently, both women, who explore in their own ways the larger realm of blues and rock music, are bringing their super-kinetic performing styles to the opening night headliners’ stages … Read more
When the gates open on June 26 to Utah’s largest arts and cultural gathering in its central downtown location, festival visitors will see as many new faces as familiar ones in every single venue and event. There are familiar and new faces everywhere. For example, the artist marketplace will have 163 artists including 56 from … Read more
Twice each evening during the Utah Arts Festival with a soundtrack that includes musical excerpts from Mozart to swing, four performers will act out a universally approachable timeless story of a boy and girl in romance, expressing love, loss, jealousy and joy. However, the quartet of performers will be dancing, flirting and adding comic gestures while atop … Read more